And the instant it stopped, Anna jumped out, and ran to her grandfather, who caught her in his arms.
“My darling daughter,—my darling, darling daughter, I am so delighted to see you,” he exclaimed over and over again, as he pressed her to his heart, while she answered him only with smiles and kisses, and both forgot that anybody else was waiting to be noticed.
Meanwhile, Dick was shaking hands with Drusilla, and chirping to little Leonard, and pulling rattles and whistles and dancing jacks out of his pocket, and in his eagerness doing everything at the same time.
“Let me look in your face, dear child,” said the old man, taking the bride’s head between his hands, and gazing wistfully into her tearful but laughing eyes; “are you happy, my Anna?”
“Yes, dear grandpa,” said Anna, earnestly, as her eyes overflowed.
“Quite happy?” anxiously persisted the veteran.
“Well—no,” answered Anna, laughing, and making a face, “perfect bliss is not the boon of mortals, I believe. And, to tell the truth, I have a corn that troubles me, to say nothing of the slightest possible twing of neuralgia caught on the boat last night—moon-gazing.”
“Oh, you came on the night boat?”
“Yes; our first plan was to stop in the city last night, but we remembered our pleasant trip on the water by moonlight when we left here four weeks ago, and as the moon was full, we thought we would come down again by moonlight, and then, too, we thought it would be so much pleasanter to reach home this morning, in time to breakfast with you, and have the whole day before us for reunion, than to get here late to-night, too tired to walk or do anything else but get supper and go to bed. Don’t you agree with me that it was best to come home now,—just now?”
“Yes, my darling, that I do,” answered the General, heartily; “but I am sorry you have got neuralgia.”